ly carried out more safely
and decorously than in the ball-rooms and drawing-rooms of London or
Paris. Of the maidens, some seemed shy and backward, and most were
silent save when addressed. But the majority received their suitors
with a thoroughly business-like air, and listened to the terms offered
them, or endeavoured to exact a higher price or a briefer period of
assured slavery, with a self-possession more reasonable than agreeable
to witness. One maiden seated in our immediate vicinity was, I
perceived, the object of Eveena's especial interest, and, at first on
this account alone, attracted my observation. Dressed with somewhat
less ostentatious care and elegance than her companions, her veil and
the skirt of her robe were so arranged as to show less of her personal
attractions than they generally displayed. A first glance hardly did
justice to a countenance which, if not signally pretty, and certainly
marked by a beauty less striking than that of most of the others, was
modest and pleasing; a figure slight and graceful, with hands and feet
yet smaller than usual, even among a race the shape of whose limbs is,
with few exceptions, admirable. Very few had addressed her, or even
looked at her; and a certain resigned mortification was visible in her
countenance.

"You are sorry for that child?" I said to Eveena.

"Yes," she answered. "It must be distressing to feel herself the least
attractive, the least noticed among her companions, and on such an
occasion. I cannot conceive how I could bear to form part of such a
spectacle; but if I were in her place, I suppose I should be hurt and
humbled at finding that nobody cared to look at me in the presence of
others prettier and better dressed than myself."

"Well," I said, "of all the faces I see I like that the best. I
suppose I must not speak to her?"

"Why not?" said Eveena in surprise. "You are not bound to purchase
her, any more than we bought all we looked at to-day."

"It did not occur to me," I replied, "that I could be regarded as a
possible suitor, nor do I think I could find courage to present myself
to that young lady in a manner which must cause her to look upon me in
that light. Ask Eunane if she knows her."

Here Eive and the others joined us and took their places on my right.
Eveena, leaving her seat for a moment, spoke apart with Eunane.

"Will you speak to her?" she said, returning. "She is Eunane's friend
and correspondent, Velna; and I think the